Mar 25, 2014

This Kenyan dish is quick and sooo easy to make – perfect if you're craving something a little more exotic with pretty common ingredients. Sukuma wiki is the Swahili name for collard greens which translates to "push/stretch the week". In East Africa they use collards to stretch out a meal so it lasts the whole week, so as you can imagine this dish is very economical.

Many of you asked me if I am now going Paleo, and the answer is no. But
that doesn't mean I can't enjoy meals that are Paleo-friendly and his book has so many exotic dishes I plan on trying soon. I met Russ of the Domestic Man on a tour of the Culinary Institute in the Fall where we cooked side by side in one of their classrooms. We were both working on our first cookbooks, so while we shared our experience together a kitchen together, we also shared stories of food, writing and more. Hope you enjoy this dish!

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and jalapeño and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the ground beef and seasonings and cook browned, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the collard greens and tomatoes and saute until wilted, about 4 minutes. Stir everything gently as it cooks, careful not to mush the tomatoes. Add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

I am Kenyan and we do not use collard greens with this dish AT all.. so its just the regular kales which is the best and only a few tribes specifically add the meat.. its not made with it. Its eaten with the stew and maybe ugali on the side :) yuuuummm

This sounds delicious! One of the best meals I ever had came from an East African food cart at a farmers market in San Diego. This looks similar but the dish I had was vegetarian. Any suggestion on a meatless substitute?

We moved to Nairobi from the USA last year, so it was a fun surprise to see this recipe posted today! We have sukuma wiki nearly every week. You can just leave the meat out if you are vegetarian -- here they tend not to put any meat in it anyway; they just make it with the greens (they often do a blend of the sukuma and spinach to improve texture), onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Typically it is eaten with ugali or Kenyan chapati!

As long as you seed and devein the jalapeno you will get the nice flavor with none of the heat. Just be careful not to touch your eyes while handling it! And make sure to rinse your knife and cutting board if you're still using them after the jalapeno!!!

I lived for 6 Month in Kenya and Sukuma Wiki is a real stable, but I never had it with all the spices and the Jalapeno, they acutally eat it quit plain, just salt;)But whenever i made it myself, I also added lots of spices, so the recipe was quit similar to yours;)Krisi

We loved loved this! Made it with kale from the garden I needed to use up, and added about 1.5 cups of diced yellow potatoes. Sauteed the kale and other ingredients with about 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes before adding the tomatoes....to let the kale get more tender and cook the potatoes. We will make this again for sure.

A huge hit with my family, who prefer GF, DF, Paleo friendly and low points dinners! Next time, I would double all the veggies to have a bigger serving. My daughter wants me to make it again tomorrow night.

It is certainly not the predominant flavor, just adds a little somethin'-somethin' essential to such a dish with so many warm and sweet-ish spices. I think if you keep the ratios, you might like it but I agree that you can leave it out if you really hate it. I think you might not like the blend though, if you don't like warm or sweet spices with meats, though the jalapeno adds a great heat.

I liked the flavors all though I would have used more of each of the spices. In my way of thinking, collard greens do not wilt in 4 minutes. I put a lid on the pan and cooked the greens for at least 10 minutes and then added the tomatoes just long enough to heat through. Nice flavors. Recipes definetly needs help.

Good lord, Gina. This was a home run, appealing to my love of interesting, new, ethnic recipes and my complete devotion to the Lebanese cuisine of my family background. I knew Kenya had some Arab influence and it really showed in this recipe. I didn't have collards, so used a mix of kale and beet greens (and doubled the amount to get more vegs in). I served with roasted yam cubes, which was a perfect accompaniment. I know that in West African they eat a lot of sweet potatoes but wasn't sure if they do in Kenya, but still they went nicely with the dish. This is going to be a repeater. Thanks again!

Oh and for those of you who want a little more of the spices (I am similar in almost all recipes), if you add rounded spoons (either the half-teaspoons or whole ones), it will give you the perfect amount, I think.

Gina, this was PHENOMENAL. I was skeptical about the spices, but I followed the recipe and I loved it. I used collards and kale. I paired it with sweet potato cornbread (the Southerner in me) and it was crazy delicious! I absolutely love your site.

Made this for dinner last night and absolutely loved it! So easy and so delicious. I used a mix of greens (kale, collard, spinach and mustard) and worked perfectly! I also added an extra jalapeno for a little more kick but the recipe as written is just wonderful! Thanks!

Made this tonight using only half pound of 93% lean ground beef but still keeping the spice & vegetable amounts the same. (I like lots of spice!) This gave me two very generous & veggie-rich servings, one to eat tonight and one to take with me for lunch at work tomorrow. The only other thing I changed is I used fresh grated ginger and one dried red chile instead of the jalapeño, as that is what I had on hand. If I was making this for family or friends, I know they would miss a starch. It would be good with a side of roasted or braised sweet potatoes or a flat bread such as naan or chapati.

this was fantastic - my family of four ate the entire dish...my daughters loved it - we picked up fresh naan from our indian restaurant down the street and paired it with that....awesome! and i substituted kale and swiss chard for the collard greens....but i might try it with the collards next time. thank you!

Made this last night and it was so good! My 2 and 4 year old loved it! I omitted the jalepeno, but used a bit of coconut oil which added great flavor, and served with grits. Will definitely make this again!! Thanks!